Driving with the Brakes Off

Photo credit: Thomas Nes Myhre

It’s not big and it’s not clever but I need to confess to talking to the roads at the weekend with dodgy brakes.

It is the first thing I have ever done anything like this and it made me feel really guilty. Of course, if your brakes ever let you down then there are tips such as bumping against the side of the road barriers to slow you down but going out with brakes you know aren’t 100% just seems a little silly.

I had realised the day before that the brakes were a bit dodgy. They still worked but they didn’t offer me the sort of stopping power which they should have done, especially when I tried to brake while going downhill. I was planning to leave it at home until I could get the brakes fixed but my mother in law phoned with a bit of an emergency and you can’t say no to the mother in law, can you?

We survived the journey but it made me realise how important it is to keep your vehicle in good working order. I have been lucky never to have had a car which caused me a lot of problems but I have a friend who spends more money on repairs to his car than on his mortgage.

Keep the Money for Petrol

Personally I like to drive as much as I can, so as well as not wanting the car tied up in the garage I also need to keep as much money as I can for petrol and for impulse purchases at service stations (the Terence Trent D’Arby CD was great, by the way).

As well as the financial side of things it is important to think about the safety issues as well. I had an older car in the past but now that I drive my little girl everywhere I want to be entirely sure that the vehicle won’t let me down at the wrong time. With a well maintained car with working brakes I can sit back, turn up Terence, and let the world glide past my window.

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